By Maria Camila Bernal Read in The Miami Herald Virginia Jacko is completely blind. At 5:30 a.m. every Tuesday and Thursday, she walks about 800 feet to the gym across her condo. To get there, she cuts through a parking garage, finds the exit, gets to the door and walks across the building. It takes her about 30 minutes. She does it ...

By Karen Franklin Read in The Miami Herald Judge Wendell M. Graham stood for justice long before he knew it. His passion for equality didn’t begin in college at Columbia University or in law school at the University of Miami. It did not blossom when he became a criminal defense attorney or when Gov. Lawton Chiles appointed him as a Miami-Dade ...

By Maria Camila Bernal and Jessica Roiz Read in The Miami Herald Adam Schachner, a high school teacher in South Miami, just received an order of neon green glow in the dark paint to decorate his bicycle. “It’s gorgeous, and it glows,” said Schachner, 32. “I can’t wait to see what it’s going to look like when I finish applying it to ...

By Patricia Tirone Read in The Miami Herald Dave Brookes began playing the violin when he was 5, training in the classical music Suzuki Method. But he never really liked it. “It bored me when I was younger, and I always wanted to play something else,’’ said Brookes, 25. In 2004, he moved to South Florida to attend the University of Miami ...

By Alex Prada Published in The Miami Herald After 20 years as an electrical engineer, Manny Nogueira decided his work had become too stressful and he needed a hobby. He turned to his wife’s interest in art. Yet, there was a problem. He couldn’t paint. But Nogueira persisted. He began creating and selling small paintings of women. And, to his surprise, ...

By Jessica De Leon Published in The Miami Herald Margaret Rodriguez traveled more than 14 miles on Saturday to stomp on star fruit. “That was a workout,” said Rodriguez, 36, after more than two minutes of stomping barefoot on fresh carambola. “I’m out of breath.” Rodriguez of Cutler Bay was among nearly the 1,000 who journeyed to Schnebly Redland’s Winery & Brewery ...

By Jean De Boyrie Read in The Miami Herald The Tour de Cure, a yearly bicycle ride organized by the American Diabetes Association, will take place Sunday on Virginia Key, where thousands of cyclists are expected to raise money and awareness for diabetes. Event manager Carole Williams, 26 , said the organization chose Miami because of the growing cycling community and the ...

By Lee Castro and Nicole Fernandez Read in The Miami Herald University of Miami women’s basketball player Shawnice “Pepper” Wilson did not plan on playing basketball when she was younger. Now 6 feet 6 inches tall, she is taking the Hurricanes to the next level as one of the new players of the season. “I actually wanted to be a cheerleader, and ...

By Vanessa Espinel Read in The Miami Herald After various attempts at updating his résumé, Graeme Anthony, a 26-year-old public relations major from London, realized the words blurred somewhere between boring and monotone. “The issue I had was that the résumé had become bastardized,” Anthony said. “You could download a template from the Internet, and it would basically look and say the ...

By Maria Concha Read in The Miami Herald The first time Andrea Ucles took Adderall, she panicked. “What are you on?” was the question of the day. “I felt accelerated, I was talking too fast — people noticed,” said Ucles, 22. “It was the panic of going to work and having people know I was on something and not knowing whether it ...